Simple Useful Work, Part 1

Some days are good for starting major projects, some days are good for doing nothing, and some days are good for doing a bunch of minor stuff.

Yesterday and today were good for minor stuff...

First, I got my Very Large rain gauge set up.  I did feel like digging a 2' hole for a 4'x4' wood post (like I used to have it on), so I used an old piece of metal pipe that I could just pound into the ground at a new spot.  And "wonder of wonders", the pipe was perfectly vertical in both directions.  I used metal pipe brackets to hold a piece of scrap wood to the pipe, then attached the rain gauge holder to that with screws.  The rain gauge is aimed directly at the master bathroom window so I can see how much rain as soon as I get up in the morning.  That red thing at the bottom floats, so I can easily tell from the window.  Helps me plan my day...

And I had to make a new holder for it because I installed a hose reel at the old spot last year.  I got tired uncoiling and recoiling the hose every time I needed to mow the lawn and found a good solid powder-coated aluminum hose reel.  It did say "wall mount only".  They don't know me very well, LOL!  Some of you may remember this project.

I not only post-mounted it, I constructed it so the hose reel would swivel (so that I could pull it off in the directions I needed to use the hose.

It turns right.

It turns left.

Well, that because I attached a metal TV turntable (that I had sitting around for years, bought at a farmer's market because it "looked useful") between the 2 layers of boards!  And figuring out how to do that nearly drove me crazy!  You see, you have to drive screws into it down into the bottom layer of wood AND up into the top layer.  But as soon as you do the first, you can't do the second because the bottom wood prevents access to the upwards screws.

I found a few videos online about how to do that and still couldn't figure it out.  I sat at my workbench for an hour each several times before I finally caught on.  I won't bore you with the details (unless you need to know, facing a similar problem), but it finally worked.

The 2 platforms are edge-joined boards.  That may sound flimsy, but each pair has 3 glued biscuits and a strip of construction adhesive between the biscuits.  They wont come apart.  Anything worth doing is worth over-doing, I always say!

Then I drilled 2 holes through both platforms and dropped bolts into the holes.  That stops the hose reel from turning when I rewind the hose (it swivels back and forth forcefully when I turn the winding handle otherwise).

The rest tomorrow...